


These Stars That Drift

by patster223



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Other, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 14:44:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11785320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patster223/pseuds/patster223
Summary: Activation made love to three of Fourteen’s bodies, before Fourteen forgot that that was something they liked to do together.





	These Stars That Drift

**Author's Note:**

> I had writer's block for like two months and it turns out that the cure was fraught ex-partners with memory loss. Thanks for [the-oxford-english-fangeek](http://the-oxford-english-fangeek.tumblr.com/) for the beta <3

Activation made love to three of Fourteen’s bodies, before Fourteen forgot that that was something they liked to do together. Activation remembered a lot about those bodies--probably more than Fourteen did--but most of all, he remembered how he laughed as soon as he saw that third body. Not because of the body itself, but because of how it compared to all of Fourteen’s past forms--they were so much _shorter_ in this one.

“I’m a deadly bounty hunter,” Fourteen said, sounding exhausted and disgruntled as they stepped into Activation’s living room. They sat themself on the couch with a sigh, and then gestured to their compact legs and arms and chest. “This is a deadly bounty hunter’s body.”

“I know it is,” Activation said. He gestured to his own body, to his soft arms and belly. “And this is a hard-hitting sports writer’s body.”

“I wonder what those bodies can do together,” Fourteen said, with an attempt at slyness that was betrayed by their hopeful glance.

Activation rolled his eyes and moved to straddle them. The way Fourteen smiled when he did so, the way they automatically shifted to accommodate Activation’s weight, the way they pressed their body against his: those things didn’t change, regardless of what body Fourteen was wearing.

“I like my body when it is with your body,” Activation found himself saying. “It is so quite a new thing.”

“Oh, uh…Thanks?”

“It’s an old earth poem,” Activation explained. He began taking off Fourteen’s shirt, pressing a kiss to their chest with every button he undid. “You reminded me of it just now.”  
  
Activation ran a light hand down Fourteen’s torso. Their body _was_ so quite a new thing: their chest flatter, skin rougher, and stomach leaner than they’d been before.

The body was new, but the raised eyebrow that Fourteen gave him was still clearly them.

“Do you always wait until the third body to recite poetry to your dates?” Fourteen wondered, lips quirking into a smile. They rucked up Activation’s shirt and began undoing it in kind. “How does that usually work out for you?”

“I’d say it’s going pretty well right now.”

“It seems to be, yeah.” Fourteen ran a teasing finger across Activation’s nipple, smile widening when Activation’s breath stuttered.

“I happen to like poetry,” Activation managed, finding it difficult to concentrate with Fourteen’s hands on him. Though not so distracted that he couldn’t add, “And possibly I like the thrill of under me you so quite new.”

It was Fourteen’s turn to laugh.

“I thought you were a sports writer, not a poet,” Fourteen said, twisting them both in a deft maneuver so that Activation was laying underneath them.

“Those things go together better than you’d think. People can be multiple things, as it turns out,” Activation said, tapping the chest of Fourteen’s new body.

Fourteen chuckled and leaned down to kiss them.  
  
They moved together slowly. Even knowing the cost of Fourteen’s exchange of bodies, in the small hours of the late night and early morning, when the mirage shone a faint yellow through the blinds, it felt like they had all the time in the world. Fourteen’s kisses were drawn out and eager, and Activation’s were too as he used his lips and hands to map out this new body of Fourteen’s.

Even taking it as slowly as they did, though, it didn’t feel like long before their kisses became mere exchanges of breath as they grinded against each other. Fourteen soon reached an impatient hand into Activation’s pants, chuckling at Activation’s sharp intake of breath.

“Poetry,” Fourteen said, and Activation chastised them with a sharp kiss. Their hips stuttered against each other’s as they moved with the ease of two drinking buddies who’d decided long ago that their professions, their minds, and their bodies worked together in a way that was too convenient and exciting to keep solely for drinking. They stroked each other with quick, efficient movements, having long-since given up on slowness and patience. Fourteen’s hands had callouses this time, and Activation moaned as the rough skin of their palm moved so precisely against him.

Pressure fluttered in Activation’s abdomen and he thrusted upward, groaning Fourteen’s name again and again, too far gone to wonder why that _fourteen fourteen fourteen_ felt like a stilted countdown toward something that Activation had been trying not to think about for a while now. _Activation_ , Fourteen whispered in kind, and it felt like a command as much as it did a call.

Activation’s hands and mouth hastened in their movements, even as he began to tire. He and Fourteen continued to stroke each other and kiss any piece of skin they could reach, moving faster and faster against each other until their bodies ground to a halt, shuddering and gasping against each other as they came.

Activation lay on that couch, a bit dazed as he tried to catch his breath. He stretched his arms toward the ceiling, finding that he was easily able to do so despite Fourteen’s weight on top of him--Fourteen’s shorter body definitely had some perks.

After a few minutes of simply lying there with Fourteen, Activation asked, “You want food?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Fourteen said. They yawned and rested their head on Activation’s chest. “I want chips.”

“If you want, I can go grab some of those fancy chips from the food stand down the street.”

“Fancy chips?”

“Yeah, the ones we got a few months ago.”

“Oh, I...I don’t think I remember, I’m sorry. They sound good though.”

“Oh.” Activation stared at the ceiling, suddenly not feeling so hungry for fancy chips.

When Activation glanced back at Fourteen, they looked sad again. Activation hated how easy that shift was for them.

“What’s wrong?” Fourteen asked, probably already knowing full-well what the answer was.

“It’s nothing, it’s just…” Activation shook his head. “Sometimes I forget--ah, poor choice of words, I’m sorry-”

“Anybody can forget.”

Activation sighed. “Sometimes I forget that...you’re going to forget about this one day.”

“I don’t think I’ll easily forget my fondness for you,” Fourteen said, running a hand down Activation’s chest. “But yeah. I’ll forget the rest, and eventually I’ll forget that fondness too. It’s kind of an inevitability for me.”

“Jesus,” Activation said. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “You know, Fourteen, in journalism, there’s a difference between being blunt and being concise. That’s not a thing they teach on the Beloved, is it?”

“You should see the other Beloved,” Fourteen snorted. Then they sighed. “It’s my life, Activation. It’s not something that fits into a sports narrative--there is no last-minute recovery or a rival team to beat. I don’t know how else to talk about it.”

“Fair enough,” Activation said. He patted Fourteen’s arm. “Come on, let’s go get some chips and I’ll stop bothering you about it.”

“But you’ll still be thinking about it,” Fourteen said. “I can tell when people are thinking about it, and then...the chips don’t taste as good, you know, when I can tell other people are thinking about it.”

“That’s also fair,” Activation admitted. “Okay, what if...I get to ask one question about it--which you don’t have to answer--and with my journalistic curiosity sated, we’ll go and get chips and stop thinking about death for once. How does that sound?”

“I’m a fan.”

Activation traced his fingers along Fourteen’s back as he thought on what question he wanted to ask. He knew he didn’t really have to restrict himself to just one, but his curiosity already felt too intrusive, too morbid, even though he knew that Fourteen--a child of The Sky Reflected in Mirrors, the ship once chosen by the divine Curiosity--loved that part of him.

“Do you know what will happen to you once you forget everything?” Activation finally asked.

Fourteen shifted off of Activation and moved so that they lay side-by-side, pressed close together on Activation’s tiny couch. Fourteen wrapped an arm around Activation’s waist.

“I’ll become data,” Fourteen said. “Not like I am now: data uploaded into a body. I’ll be raw data in the mirage.”

“What’s the difference?” Activation asked, wrapping his arm around Fourteen as well.

“I’m not sure myself, to be honest,” Fourteen said. “But I met someone new at work since my last body. Her name is Tender; she can see into the mesh. She says that when I’m inside of it, I look like a constellation, when most data just look like stars. So now I imagine that each time I find a new body, that constellation drifts further apart.”

“Does that frighten you?” Activation asked, already knowing that Fourteen was not the person here who was frightened of their fate.

Fourteen pressed a kiss to Activation’s collarbone as if in apology.

“No,” they said honestly. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to die or forget or any of that, but...I can think of worse things to be than a star in the mirage.”

Activation kissed them again: first their face, then their neck, and then in a trail down their chest. Chips could wait until later. Right now, underneath the harsh glow of Activation’s living room lights, this pale body of Fourteen’s shined like a star: one that Activation wanted to get to know in its entirety before it went out. He wanted the thrill of Fourteen under him, so quite new, until they drifted further apart too.  



End file.
